Bucephalus
by ToBetasered
Summary: Will of the Future side story. A SOCOM Fleet carries out missions for the Terran Federation behind the scenes. Tracking criminals, maverick goa'uld and traces of an alien empire that might be hostile to Earth...
1. Chapter 1

**This story is a work of fanfiction and any similarities to the characters of any television, film or literary work is... completely intentional. The author does not in any way shape or form profit from the following work nor claims any responsibility for the efforts of others. Said author acknowledges that they simply weren't cool enough to think of something like this on their own. The following story is a fanfiction cross over.**

**Bucephalus**

xx

P4X-59214 was a beautiful jungle planet. At the fourth hour past midnight, when the planet's second moon had set, the view of the heavens was spectacular. The night sky over the entire northern hemisphere was dominated by a gold, crimson and green nebula, named the Pelt of Nen by the locals, its glow covered the jungle with an ethereal aura that lasted throught the final hours before dawn.

The locals, the original inhabitants of P4X-59214, actually called their world Tchala. They couldn't care less about scenic night skies or spectacular views. This was of course not due in any way to a lack of appreciation for nature. As a matter of fact if one could persuade a Tchala tribal member to set aside their weapons for a fireside chat, an enterprising scholar would find endless weeks of time spent in deeply moving, soulful philosophical debate on matters of existentialism and man's role in the circle of life, perhaps even coming away from the experience mostly intact.

Ritual cannibalism aside, the natives of Tchala had been quite content to live their lives in peaceful contemplation of their observable universe; forgotten by whichever, most likely, long dead Goa'uld that had transplanted them there from Earth. Sadly, their quiet lives were no more. This was on account of the fact that the majority of the tribes living in the northern hemisphere had been killed off, with the few surviving human tribesmen and women either being used as slave labor or hunted for sport like wild animals.

Not that one could tell all this from a simple night stroll.

A human male strolled along the inside of an energized perimeter fence. This fence was the innermost of four, each spaced thirty meters apart with a hundred meter strip of land between the tree-line and the outermost fence. When the pirates had first settled on this planet, the indigenous peoples had responded negatively to the outsiders, who were loud, disrespectful of traditions and most distressingly, had began clearing large areas of land with huge, frightening, floating monstrosities.

For a time the locals had been too much in awe of the large flying pyramids and the seemingly mystical powers of the Starmen. As time passed however, the ruthless criminals who now occupied the planet began to show their true colors. From then on the situation devolved into a bitter and brutal struggle to free Tchala of the outsiders.

The local humans were at a hunter-gatherer stage of civilization, just beginning to learn how to cultivate crops with no knowledge of animal husbandry. Their primary food source was a cereal-like substance produced by a certain species of fungus. Meat was obtained from a variety of animals ranging from a rodent-like reptile to a dangerous, bear-sized marsupial that looked like a cross between a sloth and a wolf-hound.

With weapons technology consisting of poisoned blow-darts, bows and arrows and a hatchet-like club, those warriors who refused to retreat into the woods were mostly killed. The few that had been captured alive were used as cheap labor and entertainment.

The leader of the pirates was the Goa'uld Anaris a member of the faction called the New Brood or New Mind Goa'uld. Normally on a world like Tchala a Goa'uld would have not hesitated to dazzle the native inhabitants with a few miracles, possible through the use of Goa'uld technology, and then using drugs and brainwashing techniques establish an empire with themselves at the center as God and Ruler.

However with the end of the Goa'uld dynasty, the few remaining System Lords retreated into isolated, embattled star empires. In their absence, a new kind of Goa'uld had arisen.

In their early beginnings, the Goa'uld had been an opportunistic species of parasites. They were neither strong nor in possession of any keen physical abilities in their true form. With a limited ability to survive outside of their natural aquatic environment the Goa'uld had adapted using their one true asset, granted to them by evolution.

A Goa'uld body bears a significant resemblance to the sea lamprey of Earth with one critical exception. Their tissues possessed the ability to replicate, like a cancer, beyond the natural limit of their cells. What made this a positive asset instead of a lethally negative trait was the fact that the Goa'uld possessed a limited ability to control this replication and evolved the ability to use this trait to pass along experiences and knowledge to their asexually produced offspring as a sort of genetic memory.

Each new generation Goa'uld contained these memories written into the very code of their being, in addition, through sampling the genetic material and brain tissue of higher order life forms the Goa'uld were able to take over and assimilate what ever their victims knew, in effect blending with another creature to create a wholly knew persona. By passing on this knowledge to their offspring, a fortuitous encounter with a host with valuable skills could result in a whole entire generation of Goa'uld possessing these newly acquired abilities, knowledge and skills.

When Baal's plans to establish himself on Earth using the Trust's resources fell through and then later when an attempt to found a new empire using stolen stargates was similarly thwarted by the Tau'ri. Baal decided to go back to basics.

The Goa'uld in the years preceding the First Dynasty under Apep were divided into individual Warlords and Underlords who commanded through a system of lieutenants and sub-lieutenants the servitude of the worlds they conquered. In those times the territories of the Goa'uld were small and limited by what forces could be taken through the stargate.

Later the Goa'uld would gain the knowledge of how to create vast armies of loyal soldiers and servants through mechanical and chemical means. In those days however, the Goa'uld didn't have elite Jaffa to die for them, nor did they have six hundred meter long space craft to ferry these armies from planet to planet. The modus operandi of these early Goa'uld was infiltration, espionage, sabotage and control through fear. Though there was a significant chance that a blend would fail, the Goa'uld took millions of Unas as hosts and spread through the stargate system searching for technologies and alien civilizations that could further their ambitions.

With the Ancients penchant for leaving their technology to be found and used by others, the Goa'uld quickly rose into prominence using this stolen technology. Though at the time they were no more powerful than any of the other mid-level races like the modern Serrakin, or the Oranians, the Goa'uld combined the brutal power of their Unas hosts with their insidious ability infiltrate of alien cultures to advance themselves into a growing empire.

This was the template that the New Mind Goa'uld followed. Under the ruthless leadership of several of Baal's former lieutenants, the New Brood, a generation of Goa'uld spawned by the Goa'uld Astarte, was set loose upon the galaxy. They operated like the Mafia, perhaps showing Baal's exposure to Earth society. Each of Baal's former lieutenants became a Warlord in control of territory abandoned by the System Lords and was aided by an Underlord, supported by one or more Goa'uld scientists.

The Warlord exercised command over the greatest share of each territory and ultimately laid claim all assets within. Command was maintained by controlling access to shipyards, resources and new technology from scientists. In exchange for support, a share of all profits is forwarded by the various lieutenants. Since the few still loyal Jaffa were not trusted the New Brood members at the Lieutenant level were much more involved in tasks such as planning and leading battles.

The Underlord worked as an aid to the Warlord in coordinating the movements of lieutenants, clearing up disputes and punishing insubordination t. It was a tenuous position as the Underboss ruled over the lieutents through the threat of violence using the superior ships and the Kull warriors under the _Warlord's_command. This insulated the Warlord from assassination attempts and allowed the Warlord to assume a carrot and stick approach to his or her underlings while at the same time making the Underboss the main focus of the Lieutenant's covetous envy.

Below the Lieutenants were the dwindling numbers of Jaffa, minor Goa'uld, and the Ashrak who held an informal rank equivalent to that of a Lieutenant. There was also a growing number of human's whose loyalty was secured through the use of addiction to goa'uld drugs, systematic indoctrination, brainwashing techniques and pure greed. Also, secretly, the humans in this group were carefully cultivated as potential hosts and Lo'tar.

Beyond these groups were the associates of the New Brood, bounty hunters, mercenaries, smugglers, assassins, thieves, spies, whores, corrupt businessmen and politicians. Using methods ranging from deliberate addiction, bribery and extortion, sexual favors, lucrative bounties, kidnapping and the threat of forced blending, the New Brood commanded a vast, nebulous and utterly disposable force of underlings.

Given the threats surrounding the New Brood from the Tau'ri, Lucien Alliance, the shol'va Jaffa and even the few remaining System Lords there was ample reason to maintain the status quo.

And upward mobility?

The more territory that was conquered and the richer each 'clan' became, the more Lieutenants there would be, each Lieutenant dreamed of becoming the Underlord and perhaps in time Warlord. If all else failed, it wouldn't be unusual for a Lieutenant to die leading his or her soldiers in battle or the Underlord to be replaced by a more capable Lieutenant. It was a system that favored the ambitious.

This was why the newly promoted Goa'uld Lieutenant Anaris had settled on a backwater planet like Tchala which didn't even have a working stargate. The natives were useless to her at their current level of technological sophistication as anything other that brute muscle load haulers. They hadn't even invented the wheel yet.

Instead Anaris had sent what few notable samples among the captured natives to a fellow Lieutenant Erun, who specialized in training and trading slaves and soldiers to the other New Brood as well as administering to a facility that brainwashed 'recruits' from one of the few Jaffa worlds still under Goa'uld dominion.

Anaris personally controlled four ha'tak class motherships in addition to a couple of older Hebridan freighters captured during raids. Three of the ha'tak were of a class designed by the late System Lord Apophis the Shalk'ra ha'tak. They served to protect the upgraded udajeet and staff weapon production facility on Utigau another planet under her control and her primary responsibility as a Lieutenant of Warlord Athena.

The fourth ha'tak was a Flag-ship or Cheops-class Ha'tak that Anaris had personally upgraded further using various plundered technologies. It was used as a mobile base for a number of pirate attacks targeting Hebridan trade convoys and other unclaimed worlds with a similar degree of technological sophistication to the Hebridans and Galarans.

While both the New Brood and the Lucien Alliance were enemies of the Tau'ri, they were also locked in ruthless competition over certain resources. Raids and counter-raids were carried out on kassa producing planets and small battles were fought over worlds abandoned by the System Lords.

The ha'tak that Anaris had sent over to Erun carried several cargo holds full of kassa, some precious metals and slaves captured during the raids. These were ferried over to Erun for sale, earning Anaris a new ha'tak from Athena containing the materials and equipment needed to begin the construction of orbital defenses and a terrestrial ha'tak construction facility. The captured Hebridan freighters were already towing materials for the second defense satellite while the first was almost ready tobe put in orbit, Jaffa in a tel'tak carried construction materials down to the surface of the planet from the flagship Ha'tak in orbit.

Anaris was aboard a Shalk'ra ha'tak situated in the middle of a vast fenced clearing. The ha'tak had landed on a pre-constructed plinth in order to use its reconfigured ring transporters to excavate an automated underground production facility. When completed, the facility would create the initial drive section and space frame of a new ha'tak every four months. The drives constructed upon the plinth would then be lifted into the upper atmosphere by an anti-gravity dry dock where the main superstructure, weapons and shield generators would be completed.

With four dry docks in sections aboard the Flagship in orbit, waiting to be assembled. Aniris would be able to nearly double her fleet within a year. In time, Anaris intended to convert Tcala into a weapons production planet to create weapons for sale to other Brood clans and on the black market in what was being called Lawless Space. She and other goa'uld lieutenants had even hatched a plot to offer 'protection' to the inhabited worlds within Lawless Space in exchange for labor and goods.

This was the information that the Tok'ra had handed over to the Terran Federation Intelligence Service.

xx

Jothy completed his third circuit along the west perimeter and made his way over to the nearest watchtower for a break. With its staff cannon emplacement each watchtower served as a fixed defensive installation very few days the staff cannons would open up on the surrounding forest felling trees and creating small brushfires. The staff cannons were placed on covered platforms atop three storey tall watchtowers located at the corners of the square perimeter. They turned the outermost perimeter into a killing field.

Anything that made it past the first fence-line had to deal with anti-personnel mines, proximity activated devices that launched goa'uld shock grenades two meters into the air, stunning intruders to be later killed or captured.

The second, third and fourth fences carried a charge equivalent to a single shot from a zat'nik'tel and the fence-posts along the third perimeter fence were topped by Tacuchnatagamuntoron or Tac devices, spherical automated sentry cannons that tracked body heat within its programmed engagement envelope and fired a miniature plasma bolt.

The inside of the fourth fence line was patrolled by low ranking members of Anaris' pirate band.

The human, Jothy, and his fellow pirate, an oranian named Nuqat were currently having a drink from a flask of native liquor. They were in the covered pillbox at the top of the watchtower. It was a small room, with a bedroll in one corner along with a small table and two chairs. A candle lit up the inside of the chamber with golden wavering light in stark contrast to the harsh flood lights that illuminated the perimeter fence.

Jothy had been discussing with Nuqat the events of the pirate's last excursion outside the compound hunting the natives for sport. He was in the middle of describing a particularly exaggerated encounter with a native armed with a rock axe when he heard it. There was a noise that sounded like a wet snap and Nuqat gave a sound midway between a huff and a wheeze before sagging in his chair.

Jothy's eyes widened in surprise for a second, not understanding what had happened when a flower of pain blossomed from the side of his head.

And then…nothing…

xx

Lieutenant Cohen eased his Blackwolf GRR sniper rifle slightly downwards and sighed.

"Go." That was all he said; and at different locations around the compound variations of this signal was passed out simultaneously from snipers perched in the trees.

Private First Class Stuart Trenton was belly down, in the bushes half a meter from the tree line when the sniper he was paired with, Sergeant Wagner gave him the go ahead.

"Allez."

Within a fraction of a second of each other four men hurtled into the first perimeter clearing.

They were not seen.

xx

The TFSF Joint Special Operations Command had wanted their men and women outfitted with the very best gear possible to do their work. At the time that meant BRACA (Biomechanical Reactive Augmented Combat Armor) the prototype military armor that adopted elements from various powered armor designs, both terrestrial and extra terrestrial, including the kull warrior armor. BRACA took those designs and combined them using the technologies of the Asgard AI core.

The result had been spectacular though of limited use. The suit developed by the Asgard AI core required materials and other resources not easily obtainable by the Terran Federation and utilized technologies that only five people in the entire Federation had even a vague understanding of.

And three of those people didn't have the security clearance to know about the program.

The Federation had only produced four hundred BRACA suits. The innermost layer was a thin, seamless and skintight nanomesh suit containing hundreds of thousands of sensors keyed to the wearer's vital signs and nerve signals. This layer contained waste management systems and reinforced the wearer's skeleton using thin bands of trinium alloy connected to myomer bundles in ways that mimiced muscles and tendons, creating a robust and light weight exoskeleton.

The next layer was actually an accidental discovery credited to Colonel Jonathan C. O'Neill, Loki's clone of Marshal O'Neill; and to General Samantha Carter. The O'Neill/Carter crystals altered their material phase and structure in such a way as to amplify or reduce its reaction to forces applied to its surface. Originally intended as a data storage medium these crystals were also found to be highly efficient capacitors and with the right conditions could be stimulated to grow.

Though the supply of the crystal was extremely limited and production slow, these crystals had been integrated into the armor, giving it several useful abilities. The suit absorbed 80% of all forms of kinetic energy directed at its outer surface, storing that energy as potential chemical and mechanical energy. It likewise gave a maximum mechanical advantage of eight for one to forces directed at the inner surface. Finally, the crystal layer could also be used as a data storage device holding software used by the suit's control system to keep the suit's wearer alive.

The outer layer of the suit consisted of an armor that was composed trinium fibers and neutronium micro-platelets. This armor was woven by nano-machines into an extremely fine structure comprised of several layers of interlocking microscopic neutronium plates connected by trinium fibers. This armor could not be cut by a normal knife, was resistant to directed energy blasts, ballistic weaponry and if damaged repaired itself over time.

The final parts of the suit was a personal shield that doubled as a cloaking device and a power cell situated in the lower back armor. Personal weapon modules could be attached to various pars of the body for combat. Finally, a scaled down inertial dampener and antigravity device were housed within a horse shoe-shaped module that settled on the hips. The suit came with a flexhible skull mask attachment made from the same layered design that protected the head as it did the rest of the body. It also included systems that cleaned and recycled oxygen and fluids.

Each suit cost the Federation the equivalent of 900 million dollars, not mention the priceless value of the extremely rare and difficult to obtain elements used in the design like neutronium and ununoctium.

By comparison, Federation scientists had created a reverse-engineered version of the BRACA with far inferior capabilities though much more easily mass-produced.

In the twilight hours of a jungle morning a squad of special operators were finally going to get a chance to test their suit's their abilities.

Aside fom the natives, no one would ever know they were there, and live to tell of it.

xx

Private First Class Marcus Palls' legs pumped as he covered the first sixty meters of the clearing in a little more than four seconds. Thanks to the nanomachines supplying oxygen directly to his muscles and the force multiplication of the crystal layer, he wasn't even winded. The only reason why he hadn't gone even faster was the fact that he needed to judge his moment just right…

The thing about scientists and the military; a soldier says, "Hey, I need this jet to take off and land on a runway thirty meters shorter than it was designed for, would it work if I strap on some rockets?."

The scientist, half-serious says, "I dunno, the math works out, but you'd need about a dozen, why don't you try it out and let me know how things turn out I'll… be standing over there."

The short story is, the soldier straps on a couple dozen rockets, gets the jet into the air and does his duty while the scientist is still analyzing his models.

Just so you know, the next time the jet went up was in a fireball.

This was what roughly happened when SOCOM asked its science advisers what would happen if someone attached a man-portable inertial dampener and antigravity generator to a volunteer and asked him to jump as high as he could. Never mind that the science advisors had been the ones to design the damn thing in the first place, some people just shouldn't be allowed near advanced and highly experimental equipment, things went right in all the wrong ways.

The Asgard included inertial dampeners into their body armor because it was necessary to reduce the stresses moving about in such massive armor would have on their sickly bodies.

Jonathan O'Neill had just thought the crystal was some sort of novelty ball, bouncing higher and higher and higher…until it hit the ceiling and forced the lab techs at Area 51 to begin playing an incredibly demented version of Pong. The crystal had eventually reached the limits of its energy capacitance, generating a bubble like subspace distortion and glowing eerily as it floated in the middle of the ruined lab.

Sam hadn't known whether to kiss or kill him. She settled for pulling rank and ordering him off the base. Good times before the War.

The little tidbit about the subspace field was dismissed as a quirk of the technology but it would be a breakthrough in the future. Until then there was the question.

Let's say, there's this guy who's running a full two seconds faster than the physical threshold of an Olympic gold medal sprinter. And this guy then starts pacing out his steps like a long jumper. Then he actually jumps with a leap empowered by an eight to one mechanical advantage.

And let's say this happens while inertia is treating him like tinkerbell and the gravitational forces acting on him are cut to one sixth of what they should be.

Just so you know, they did eventually get that volunteer down before he froze to death, though it had taken some tricky flying from the over-watch plane.

The system in Corporal Morioka's belt pack was much more modest while still allowing for apparent feats of superhuman ability. As one, the four men leapt into a ballistic arc that carried them over three of the four fences. Their cloaking devices provided sufficient protection from the heat-seeking Tac sentry guns. They bled off momentum by tucking into a roll before mentally adjusting their belt-pack's settings and somersaulting over the last fence in a more modest jump.

It took them less than ten seconds to clear the perimeter. They then proceeded towards their objectives under the watchful eyes of the snipers in the trees.

xx

The operators had been equipped with AEG's in the event that there were any kull warriors hidden on the base. In the ten days that they'd been watching the pirate settlement, there'd been no sign of the drones…a pity since SOCOM had wanted an assessment of how BRACA stood up to those things.

During the days before the attack they had mapped and timed the sentry routes, entrances, exits, the comings and goings of shuttles; and most importantly, eavesdropped on the communications between the mothership in orbit and the one on the ground. They had managed to verify most of the data provided by the Tok'ra informant and discovered a few details that had been left out. Apparently the Goa'uld in charge had ordered had gotten antsy after stealing a ha'tak full of kassa from the Lucien Alliance and was laying low, playing things safe for a while.

Originally the plan had been to fake a distress call through the stargate and hit Anaris in the confusion after she started sending her troops through. That plan had to be scrapped when their target had done the smart thing and left the Flagship in orbit. The first signs of trouble and the snakehead would bug out to her command vessel above.

It had taken five days to revise the plan and unfortunately that meant that in the time that they had been waiting, one of the defense satellites was close to being completed. They'd also had a close call when the the towers had opened up in a 'brush-clearing' exercise. The staff cannons had blown up a stand of trees a few meters away from one of their forward observation posts hand they'd been forced to pull back to their secondary positions further away.

Now it was time. Silently, the infiltrators from the north and south began moving anticlockwise about the perimeter searching out ground batteries that had been marked out. They'd managed to tag one of the vehicles with a UHF scanner that combined with other devices planted by sniper rifle delivery, created a sensor net that allowed the operators to accurately map out the compound and even some of the areas that they couldn't get at like the underground production facilities, they even had a good idea of their target's current location.

Morioka and Trenton moved swiftly but carefully through the camp, tagging anti-orbital weapons emplacements and bunkers with SSID's for bombardment later on before moving the other identified sites. Trenton had to take care as the latrines he was passing by was in heavy use.

Staedler and Palls converged on the ha'tak from the west and east. Palls made some detours setting C-12 shaped charges and plasma grenades near occupied barracks and munitions stores. Staedler left some gifts in a maintenance bay for the Al'kesh and Tel'tak, carefully moving around the human workers.

The HUD built into his suit's s'isor (Screen and Visor) overlaid a map of his location with a reading of all detected footfalls within a ten meter radius. Cloaked beings were undetectable by a wide array of scanning equipment, including thermal and dark light scans.

These technologies did however have a weakness. Unlike Tollan phase technology; Alteran cloaking devices and their Goa'uld derivatives worked by partially moving objects within the boundaries of the cloaking field at the time of activation, slightly, but not completely out of phase with the rest of the physical universe. This allowed a cloaked object to become invisible to most senses and scanners while still being able to interact with the physical universe.

What this meant was that cloaked being could still be touched and touch, their environment. It also meant that they left footprints, snagged branches, flattened grass and if they moved too quickly would create faint distortions within atmosphere, observable to other within a few meters depending on the density of the fluid.

Corporal Staedler used his suit's sonar as an enemy personnel detector to warn him when he should stay still and when he could move. The detector indicated movement as he was passing through an alley between two storerooms. Lacking any cover he flattened against a wall and remained still. Inside his visor he watched the mission timer count down while the man walked past.

"_Sixteen minutes left, come on, come on!"_ He thought as the pirate loitered at the end of the alley way. He glanced at the other end of the alleyway briefly a movement that nearly got him killed…

But it did however, answer the question of whether or not there were Ashrak on the base.

In a blur the Ashrak spun around bringing his Hara'kesh to bear on Staedler's general position at about head height. He moved with a speed that was only countered with the aid of BRACA, the glowing crystal in the center of the man's palm impacted with a weapon deployed from a greave-like holster on Staedler's right arm.

There a flash of light and a sizzling sound as the armor discharged some of the power stored in the crystal layer in the form of an electric current that coursed through the Hara'kesh, destroying it, passed into the Ashrak's body and then into the ground. The glowing crystal was cracked and smoking. The Ashrak slumped backward before flickering and vanishing.

On instinct Staedler dropped into a crouch as an invisible blade sparked as it slashed out at neck height digging into the wall. Using that as a guide, he lashed out with a booted foot and felt something –crunch- when he hit his opponent's leg at knee-level.

In those few desperate seconds both antagonists knew that they had to kill the other quickly.

A knife-like outline distorted the air as it plunged downward with terrible force. The Ashrak's blade tried to penetrate the hollow between shoulder blade and collar bone. In was repelled and the goa'uld lurched backward, eyes widening as the Braca suit switched from active cloaking to it's defensive shield revealing a man in a dark armored suit that seemed to blur along its outline.

A three inch long, trinium alloy climbing piton extended from beneath the big toe of Staedler's boot. His foot lashed out again at knee height even as the knife sparked against his chest. The Ashrak, who been about to cry out in an attempt to draw attention gasped and grunted in pain as the spike dug in just behind his kneecap and levered the joint out of position.

The pain was just enough to break the goa'uld control over his cloak for a few seconds. He flicked briefly into visibility which was all that the sniper backing Staedler up, most liekly Wagner, needed to take a shot. The Ashrak's head jerked sideways and Staedler sighed in relief. There was a thud and a puff of displaced dirt where the goa'uld assassin's invisible body fell.

"Thanks Sarge." Staedler sighed as a pool if blood began to gather at his feet with no visible source.

Dumping the body and cleaning up took another few minutes, leaving Staedler the last to arrive at Beta squad's waypoint, with only four minutes left before to the deadline.

"The charges are set." He confirmed to the others, "I ran into an Ashrak on the way here."

"We know…" Morioka informed him on the sub-vocal com as they moved into the earthbound ha'tak. "Lieutenant Cohen informed of what happened you okay?"

"Not a scratch, but there wasn't a lot of places to hide the body and we don't know if someone was waiting for him." Staedler said. "I don't know how he knew I was there, we need to hurry.'

"It'll get done, when it gets done son." Wagner interrupted over the com. "Just concentrate on getting it done."

"We couldn't get near to the power core without setting of alarms…" Palls informed them. "Trenton accessed the main power conduit three floors above and set some charges there."

"Good!" Wagner answered over the encrypted network, "Combined with the external damage we'll do to the gravimetric projectors, this ship won't be going anywhere."

Their HUD's pulled up a schematic of the ha'tak aand Lieutenant Cohen spoke as a certain corridor was highlighted. "With the T-Jammers active the only way out is through the ring transporters." Cohen in his gravelly voice, "Trenton and Palls hold this corridor." A point on the corridor was highlighted, "Staedler and Morioka are to secure the target."

Four voices answered, "Yes, sir!"

In a forest clearing, a cloaked jumper opens it bay doors taking four soldiers into its hold. Sargeant Wagner gave a glance at his watch as he made his way to the pilot.

"Send the signal." He ordered.

xx

The two men faced each other grimly storm grey met dark blue in a clash of wills until…

"Go fish!"

"Damn!"

"Haha!"

"If those brownies of yours weren't so good…" Colonel Jonathan O'Neill muttered.

"You liked my brownies?" Major Andrew Ludowski asked with a pleased expression.

O'Neill looked slightly nonplussed "Beer and brownies…" He said, "I haven't tried that since the seventies. How the hell did Special Activities let you go?"

"I just needed a change of pace." Ludowski answered blandly, a stocky man in his forties, he looked like a frumpy accountant even in uniform, it was deliberate. "The real fight's out here now."

"Maybe" O'Neill answered, "We've fought the Goa'uld time and again, now they've gotten even sneakier, there's the Lucien Alliance, the Wraith and the other random uglies, threats sure, but we're not alone."

"True, we now have allies." Ludowski replied, "We have scrabbled to the top against all the odds, but now it is all on us from here on out sir." He motioned to the display behind him where the Tcala star system was in view of the holographic pickups.

Perhaps annoyed at the implied criticism the colonel's tone was slightly biting. "The System Lords would have done much worse Major."

"Yes." Ludowski calmly agreed. "But that's not my point sir."

"What is it then?' O'Neill frowned.

"There's always something else, sir. If not the New Brood, then the System Lords, if not the System Lords, the Wraith, there's always something or someone else. The Jaffa have established themselves as a major force in this galaxy, yet relations between us are often… tenuous." The Major elucidated.

"Is that it?" The Colonel asked. "The Jaffa are primarily a warrior society. Big and gruff is just part of the deal. The goa'uld caused them to be isolated from human societies. That makes things difficult when trying to relate to them, we also killed a heck of a lot of Jaffa going after the System Lords, it'll take time."

"Perhaps." Ludowski said then he added. "But there's always someone else, a new enemy waiting in the wings. We have confirmation that not all of the Aschen Confedracy was destroyed, and who knows what else is out there."

To this, Colonel O'Neill leant back into his chair in his quarters aboard the Daedelus-class Deep Space Battle cruiser Orion. He calmly regarded the holographic image of Major Andrew Ludowski, who appeared to be sitting across from him although he was actually aboard the Mustang-class SOCOM Frigate Bucephalus, fifty thousand kilometers away as the two cloaked vessels idled seven light seconds outside the Tchala star system.

With great deliberation O'Neill said. "When that time comes, no matter who or what it is, we'll be ready, we'll be here."

Ludowski smiled. "That sir is why I'm here too…"

The intercom buzzed on both vessels at nearly the same time. The voice Captain Nuves, XO aboard the Frigate spoke from the bridge. "Sir! We are receiving a burst subspace transmission from Tchala II, communications is routing the decrypted message to you now. A holographic monitor flared into life above Ludowski's desk.

Aboard the Orion, Colonel O'Neill was reading the same four lines of the message.

_This is the way world ends _

_This is the way world ends_

_This is the way world ends…_

xx

Thirty seconds after the signal was sent a sensor station operator aboard Anaris' Flagship hat'ak the Ill Omen was distracted from chasing the sensor shadows at the edge of the solar system by the newly assigned task of trying to pinpoint the source of the short transmission that had come from the planet.

"Well?!" The pirate's commander, a Jaffa in the service of Anaris demanded.

"Jus' give meh a hucking minute wil'ja" The human answered in frustration.

The Jaffa sneered in disdain and considered slapping the man's face into the console for his disrespect before scowling and rounding on the Oranian at the communications console. "Have you raised the Dark Lady yet?" He asked dangerously.

"No, we are receiving no reply to our hails." The outlaw growled.

The Jaffa commander frowned deeply. "This is…"

Perhaps Jor'ac was going to conclude that the situation was suspicious or maybe troubling but whatever he was going to say was lost in the storm of cursing from the sensor operator. The source of the man's agitation was apparent when the ship trembled with a series of muted thumps. Reports came in that there were explosions in the Tel'tak loading bay and three of the storage hangers. In the confusion one of the Tel'tak that was supposed to be heading for the target curved away and opened up a hyperspace window, the Tok'ra spy escaping.

"We've lost life support, weapons and shields!" One of the pirates exclaimed.

"Fix it!" Jor'ac, the Jaffa in charge screamed.

"Which one? Life support, weapons or shields?" The human at the operations console asked plaintively.

"All of it!" Jor'ac roared.

The shorter man cowered as he answered. "But I can only restore one of those systems. The damage from those explosions knocked out several of the tertiary power relays."

"Give me weapons!" the Jor'ac ordered.

This proved to be an unfortunate decision, for just as the flagship's weaponry came online a hyperspace window opened thirty degrees above the Flagship to the port. The Terran Federation Space Forces, DSBC Orion exited with its shields up and weapons cycled.

xx

Outwardly at a distance, intentionally, the Orion looked little different from any of the other Daedelus-class vessels. However, there were many details that set the Orion apart from the Odyssey upgraded vessels.

The Hebridans had been devastated by the Ori and the many raids conducted by the Lucien Alliance, the New Brood and other pirate bands were slowly but surely bringing the planet and its colonies toward the brink of disaster.

It was at the point that not even the four Daedelus Battle cruisers that were offered for an extended ranged patrol by the Federation were enough to stave off the multiple raids. Hebridan freighters suffered. This problem had been the basis of Hebridan's treaty with Earth Union upon joining the Federation. The Mutual Defense Treaty allowed for the use of strategic assets to defend Federation members.

Hebridan was the only member other than Earth with the industrial capability to produce large spacecraft and the Federation needed that capability. While Earth Union was unwilling to hand over the designs for the Daedelus and the technologies gifted by the Asgard a compromise had been reached.

Hebridan opened trade relations with the Federation creating a larger market for their products and the industries of other members through access to its surviving fleets of interstellar freighters. The Federation Military received Serraken energy weapons including the designs for ship-scale particle acceleration weapons, pulse lasers, computers and various established warship designs. The most useful Hebridan contribution was the designs for their latest generation of sublight dual core ion engines.

What they gained in exchange, aside from access to Earth Union markets and products, were the designs for the shields of a Beliskner-class vessel which were scaled down and applied to their freighters, Asgard teleportation technology and the designs for the BC-303 Prometheus.

The thirty-two railgun emplacements on the original Daedelus vessels were, on the Orion, replaced by forty emplacements each consisting of a Serrakin designed plasma cannon with a high rate of fire and three combination guns that fired a solid, magnetically accelerated, depleted uranium round encased within a toroid of plasma.

Serrakin pulse laser emitters were situated every ten meters in a grid pattern over the surface of the battlecruiser. They covered both the Ventral-Dorsal surfaces as well the Port and Starboard sides of the ship and could be used for both anti-fighter defense as well and intercepting enemy weapons fire. The pulse lasers would not penetrate a ha'tak's shields but they could be used to accurately target and disrupt the structure of the plasma bolts, prematurely detonating them before they could hit the ship. These new systems drew power from a separate power distribution grid energized by a subspace capacitor.

Also, in addition to the two APB (Asgard Plasma Beam) weapons mounted on either side of the forward section, there were four moveable turrets mounted on rails built into the outer hull. These turrets fired a compressed beam of magnetically accelerated ions, a technology reverse engineered by Federation scientists from the Tollan Ion Cannon schematics given to Earth.

Add the two hundred, coil-launched Mark Nine and Mark Five nuclear missiles in the sixteen VLS tubes built into the forward section of Orion's bow and the Daedelus Block II Orion's offensive armament was clearly superior to the Block I Odyssey upgraded vessels and stood on even footing with those in terms of shields and carrier capability.

xx

With the ha'tak in geosynchronous orbit over the planet and the Tok'ra agent's sabotage, the SOCOM vessel was able to perform a flawless first strike maneuver. On Colonel O'Neill's orders, before entering hyperspace, the dorsal PAC (Particle Accelerator Cannon) turret was positioned under the bow of the Orion. As a result, when the vessel exited hyperspace, one hundred thousand kilometers away from the pirate ship Ill Omen, it was pefectly positioned to fire upon the ha'tak's bridge.

For less than half a second an iridescent beam of energy connected the two ships. Without shields the Pel'tak was hulled, exposing the bridge crew's ashes to hard vacuum as the ion weapon's devastating energies blew out surviving control systems throughout the mothership. External lights visible from the ha'tak flickered and died as the ship's powercore shut down. The damage to the launch bay prevented new fighters from engaging the Orion and those ships that did not flee on sight of the SOCOM battlecruiser were destroyed when the vessel's pulse lasers opened fire.

In Orbit above Tchala, Tel'taks and Al'kesh scatterd madly like a frightened school of fish before the large predator that had so suddenly appeared in their midst. The Orion's surface flashed repeatedly as the pulse laser grid targeted and destroyed enemy bombers and support vessels with impunity. Each flash corresponded with a pirate ship exploding as the networked targeting system converged beams from as many as eight or nine lasers at a time, burning through sheilds to vaporise bulkheads setting each ship's internal atmosphere alfame. The Orion's signals intelligence officer reported that comunications between the pirates showed them to be highly disorganized.

Below the Orion, the Bucephalus exited hyperspace and decelerated into a low orbital slot above the camp. Subspace identifier tags left by the Special Ops team told the Frigate which targets to strike in order of importance. Already in disarray due to the C-12 charges detonated throughout the compound, the running men were blinded by ion beams fired from the Frigate's two fixed PACs and then bowled over when the main armory blew.

Four times the twin beams struck, causing secondary atmospheric effects like roaring thunder, rain and plasma blooms as the beams ionized the atmosphere causing the jungle to smell of ozone. The Bucephalus' shields flashed, falling to eighty-two percent as counter-fire answered from a surviving ground cannon emplacement, landing a glancing blow. The frigate engaged in evasive maneuvers, returning fire once more aiming at the revealed staff cannon. An Al'kesh coming in on an attack vector fired its two staff weapons, scoring four direct hits on the frigate, lowering the vessel's shields to sixty percent. Major Ludowski, sitting in his command chair seemed almost bored as the 150 meter long Garabaldi-class Frigate shuddered. Some of the force of the kinetic impacts bled through Bucephalus' inertial dampeners and was felt by crewmembers as reverbations in the bulkheads.

"Arm anti-fighter missiles, open VLS hatches one through four." He ordered.

"Missiles armed, VLS hatches open, hatches one through four are open." His XO confirmed.

"Clear tubes one through four, target that Al'kesh making a return pass." The Major instucted.

"Yes, sir!" came the reply.

Four of the Frigate's eight, cold-launch VLS, each spat out a Kotaka anti-fighter missile. The rocket motor fired twenty meters away from the hull of the ship, vectoring its thrust as the hardened onboard guidance system locked onto the goa'uld bomber. Desperate, the Al'kesh broke away in an attempt to escape into hyperspace. In response to the move, the missiles cut into the Al'kesh's turn and two of them, detecting a target within their engagement envelope, split into dozens or mini-rockets that swarmed the bomber, battered down its shields and destroyed it with several explosions across its surface.

The other two missiles were re-tasked to track the a Pirate Tel'tak that was towing the goa'uld weapon satellite. One of the missiles ran out of fuel outside of its envelope and self-destructed. While the other got within range and sent the vessel and the weapons platform hurtling through the atmosphere in burning ruin.

xx

The Captain Chavez looked on in sympathy as her co-pilot, a space force lieutenant visibly steeled herself; though, by rights Chavez should have been the one cringing at being paired off with a rookie. Wryly, she smiled, showing a brave front as she drawled. "You okay there kid? Is this your first time?"

First Lieutenant Ibenez gathered herself enough to smile defiantly at Chavez. "Gotta pop that cherry some time…"

It was not reassuring, not reassuring at all for the sixteen marines in the troop carrier attached to the Orca Orbital Combat Lift Vehicle, as they listened to their pilots' laugh maniacally as the dropship descended through Tcala's atmosphere at terminal velocity.

Huddled in the dim trrop compartment, their lives in a cackling maniac's hands a wise-ass private chose to cpeak up.

"LT... I'm Scared."

"S-shut up!"

In the jungle, dark eyes watched the confusion in the pirate camp, watched the lightning strike that clearing again and again and nowhere else. More dark eyes gathered and the tribes watched as Quetzalcoatl descended in the form of a giant flaming bird.

xx

Ibenez stopped laughing long enough to hit in sequence, the flares, decoys and shock grenades. The first lit up the landing field with a dull red glow; the second spoofed any targeting system still active about the ha'tak while the third knocked flat any resistance to the marines that poured out of the troop transport, setting up a perimeter for the SpecOps soldiers dragging their writhing prisoner roughly aboard.

xx

A few brave warriors returned to the tribal elders with a nightmarish tale of how the Serpent God opened his mouth and spewed forth demons with glowing eyes. The demons had dragged out the Queen Bitch (literal translation) of the defilers. What few pirates that fled into the forest would be hunted down without mercy, down to the very last man.

xx

Aboard the Bucephalus Major Ludowski traced his fingers over the last line of the pre-arranged signal again and again.

_Not with a bang but a whimper_

xx

Verrin moaned in fear as he struggled against the warriors who had stripped him bare and wrestled him onto the altar. He had expected to have his hearts ripped out like the other hapless pirates but the two head priests seemed to be having a disagreement, he could only understand one word in three but they seemed to be arguing the same thing over and over again so he thought he understood why the new acolyte wasn't plunging his blade into him yet.

**Translation of Argument:**

_Who makes the next cut?_

_Who._

_The guy that makes the ceremonial cut._

_Who.._

_The guy who cut's this little shit's heart out as an offering to the Feathered Sepent Lord!_

_Who does that._

_That's what I'm asking you!_

_That's what I'm telling you!_

_Who does the next incision!_

_That's Right!_

_Wight?!_

_No Who!_

_Who?_

_That's right!_

_...what?_

_No Watt's over there._

…_YiyiYiyiYiyiYIIIYi!!!_

Verrin whimpered.

Who patiently fingerd his blade, his time would come...

xx

**AN: Did this over the weekend, it ties in to the Old Men chapter of Will of the Future. The signal sent to the SOCOM ships is actually a quote of the last stanza of the Hollow Men by T.S. Elliot. You'll be seeing Ludowski and Jack 2.0 again. Read and Review, I'm open to suggestions.**


	2. Chapter 2

**This story is a work of fanfiction and any similarities to the characters of any television, film or literary work is... completely intentional. The author does not in any way shape or form profit from the following work nor claims any responsibility for the efforts of others. Said author acknowledges that they simply weren't cool enough to think of something like this on their own. The following story is a fanfiction cross over.**

**The Hunters**

xx

In the beginning there was a crater, a really, really BIG crater. And upon a hillock looking down upon that cater there stood Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay. And Rodney said, "Let there be light." And there was. Illuminated by that light were his works and Rodney saw them and thought that they frick'n awesome.

Then He said, "Ack!" As his wife, Dr. Jennifer Keller-McKay planted her stiletto shoe on his ass and punted him off of the hillock.

And he rolled and he tumbled down the slope for an age and a day. His hands desperately scrabbled for a purchase in the shrubbery, arresting his descent mere centimeters from the edge of the crater, only just cheating death…

In his mind…

Actually there was still a further ten meters until the gentle grassy slope that overlooked the ancient impact crater leveled off and ended at a three meter high reinforced fence. McKay sprawled comically on the ground gasping for air as he glared at his equally pissed off wife of forty years.

Gathering himself he continued his internal dialogue as he shrieked…erm, bellowed, "What the hell was that for!"

Jennifer's visage grew stony as she carefully navigated over the ground toward him. She was dressed in a sleek red cocktail dress that showed of her still youthful body to great effect. Behind her a remote telemetry drone followed obediently.

Anxious not to be kicked again, Rodney hurried to his feet as his wife marched right up to him and, pointedly ignoring the remote hovering behind her, spoke in the coldest tone imaginable.

"Rodney, am I right in saying that on our fortieth anniversary you took your patient, beautiful and loving wife to see you test out a fucking nuclear bullet?!"

"It's a non-nuclear shell darling, a highly efficient, self-contained rubidium/naquada warhead that generates a sub-kiloton explosion that produces less radiation than an old style microwave. The potential yield is over three hundred percent that of a of what even my best calculations showed it would be…imagine a sub-kiloton explosion using only _trace_ amounts of naquadah. Can you imagine what we could do with this- Gack!"

McKay's diatribe was curtailed by his wife's attempt at throttling him.

"Our fortieth anniversary Rodney! Our fortieth!"

Timidly, as though unsure of what to make of the quarreling husband and wife one of the test-pilots controlling the remote spoke haltingly through the drone's speakers.

"…Um…Ma'am, I think he's had enough…Ma'am? He's turning blue in the face."

"He… can… last… for… two… more… minutes." Jennifer offered her professional medical opinion as she wrung her husband's neck, though she still let him go after only a couple more shakes. Jabbing her hand over her shoulder she fumed. "Who is this person interrupting our personal time?! Why are there military templates down there?"

xx

What Jennifer was referring to was the squad of military BMT's or Bipedal Mechanized Templates stationed on the test site within the crater below. The Templates were a line of human piloted, limbed vehicles patented and mass produced by Rodney McKay and his company, McKay Enterprises.

Not egotistical at all...

Upon retiring from the Atlantis expedition with his wife, Rodney had found his skills in high demand by the IOA. His ludicrously large salary as a consultant and his experience in working with advanced technologies had made it easy to initially fund, and then later with the aid of a private investor, found a company that in the reconstruction efforts after the Third World War would make McKay a very wealthy man.

The BMT was arguably Rodney's most successful invention other than the radiation cleaning nano mist that he had designed and provided free of charge to Poland and other countries that were affected by radiation poisoning in the wake of the war. As a result, not only was Rodney one of Earth's richest men, but he also had a nice little Nobel Prizes in Physics to his name.

Take that Bill Gates.

The BMT was a highly customizable limbed vehicle made to perform a variety of tasks under a wide range of conditions. The design was based around a sealed, self-contained control module designed to protect a pilot from a wide range of hostile conditions. From this control module a pilot had access to a range of externally mounted cameras, sensors and in some designs, a detachable reconnaissance drone.

Many of Mckay's BMT designs also took advantage of another invention that he had been involved in creating, a gravimetric manipulator that while not very powerful, could be used to lift heavy loads by enveloping them in an antigravity field. Other applications made it possible adjust the buoyancy of a BMT as well as it's resistance to external pressures via the creation of a form of force-field.

The control module rested atop a sealed pod that contained the Template's power generation module, usually a highly efficient, rechargeable hydrogen/rubidium fuel cell or in some military designs a micro-fusion reactor.

Beyond that, a wide range of limb designs could be applied to the modules that combined to form the BMT's torso. Various fully and partially articulated limb designs were used that had varying degrees of freedom. They were moved by hydraulic actuators, myomer bundles or some combination of the two. Some designs were not truly bipedal. Terrestrial Construction BMT's utilized modular threads or heavy duty wheels as an alternative to a hydraulic actuator in a wide based leg. Construction BMT's possessed up to eight arms depending on the model with each of the arms possessing a universal attachment socket for a variety of tools.

Law Enforcement and some Military BMT's were constructed from the same Bucky-Steel/ Titanium alloy composites as the civilian models. They did however also possess more sophisticated antigravity emitters impeded in their chassis. These allowed the BMT's to hover lightly over a surface and skate across relatively flat ground at high speed. In an urban environment land speeds were in excess of 80 km/h depending on the terrain. The vehicles were virtually silent when moving in hover mode. These BMT's functioned in environments that would bog down or otherwise obstruct a conventional main battle tank, even the more modern designs created after Disclosure.

Because of the concentration of gravitons below it, Military BMTs were well capable of surviving in a mine field and clearing out mines were often a function that they performed on Earth. The limbs on these designs were powered by electro-reactive myomer bundles and as a result, in battle BMT's were noticeably more maneuverable and adaptable to terrain than other types of armor.

BMT's could also be equipped for limited spaceflight, though they were not escape/re-entry capable. They functioned under water with a fluid jet propulsion system and as such Worker BMT's were a fixture in both underwater construction as well as service and repair applications in the TFSF space docks.

With a total height of 5.67 meters Military BMT's were capable of traveling through a Stargate due to their geometry while kneeling in Ready Mode. Their shields and armor gave them a higher survivability against directed energy weapons compared to a conventional main battle tank which until a few years after Disclosure was of a design thhat did not even allow passage through a gate without an unfeasible amount of preparation.

So the BMT's greatest customer after the construction industry was the Federation Military. This was true to such a degree that the Lohengrin's armor plating had been appropriated without fuss for use in the new chassis of the Series II Wolverine military BMT line. The five meter tall Template looked like a squat sumo wrestler with its thick trinium alloy armor covering the myomer bundles and hydraulic actuators that made the Wolverine the terror of alien ground forces.

The starship armor had only been one of the new modifications to the BMT. A wish-list of weapon modifications had also been supplied to the design team. Most of these were covered by other contractors leaving McKay Enterprises with only one project.

Jennifer's nuclear bullet…

xx

"It is so not a nuclear bullet!" Rodney complained seemingly missing the cause of his wife's meltdown. "It's a micro-fusion shell for use as artillery and it's perfectly safe, heck it's even safer than the energizer module on the Wolverine "

The remote trembled. "What? What did you mean by that? I'm _sitting_ on the energizer module Dr. McKay!" One of the pilots squawked through the device's speakers.

"Oh shush, the armor around that module is even thicker that in the control capsule." Mckay scoffed, "Sure the reactor is a lot more stable than it used to be, but the safe-fail system doesn't matter if the core is breached by a HEAT round."

The pilot wasn't mollified by that answer. "I'd feel a lot better if these things had an ejection system." The man sulked.

"Rodney…"

Dr. MaKay leveled his best glare on the remote. "A core breach would vaporize anything within twenty meters, incinerate anything a further thirty meters out than that, not to mention shrapnel from the pressure wave. An ejection pod that could survive that kind of damage is unfeasible, thus we seek to avoid such an event."

"Rodney…"

"Better armor and better shields means the power core is better protected and has a higher chance of shutting down safely if damaged." The scientist continued raving.

"Rodney…"

"A safer power core means less chance that an exploding reactor will kill you! Of course I would have liked to have used a less volatile power source but you military guys were the ones pushing for a longer operation time, you ungrateful a-AAAaahhhH!!"

"Rodney, are you ignoring me, on our anniversary, for some argument about your toy?" Jennifer asked sweetly.

Normally he would have complained about a society changing invention being called a toy but his wife had him by the balls.

Literally…

Nervously he looked from the fixed smile on his wife's face to the small hand that had him at her mercy. Uneasily he squeaked. "Happy Anniversary Dear."

In the distance, special incendiary rounds were fired into the air. At a certain height, they exploded to form complex and breathtakingly beautiful patterns in the sky that were calculated by McKay and a ballistics expert working under him to spell out 'I love you' in a symbolic design.

Jennifer's eyes widened at the display and she brought her hands up to her cheeks and flushed with pleasure. By her side Rodney collapsed to his knees with a wheeze. The explosions had startled her into clenching her fist, and she hadn't exactly let go when she pulled her hand away either.

"Oh it's so beautiful Rodney, Rodney? Rodney Honey?! Are you all right? Say something! Oh! Just breathe, breathe!"

A short distance away the drone wobbled in silent commiseration.

xx

**Saturn-Dione L4 point, Helene Lagrange Point Space Dock**

In the quiet moments, he remembered.

"_**I need a medic up here now!"**_

_**Blood…not his blood…**_

"_**Shields are at 20 percent and holding. The Sun Tzu is drifting, all systems inactive."**_

_**A tremor rocks him as inertial dampeners fail to outlast against the full force of a blast… **_

"_**Good God! They're launching nukes! Area 51 reports that soldiers have been beaming in!"**_

_**His vision obcsured by smoke he hears only the words …**_

"_**The Odyssey is hit! All nuclear ordinance can be confirmed destroyed but the Guang Xi brought their shields down to critical levels! They won't survive another pass!"**_

_**His blood runs cold…**_

"_**Status on the weapons." His snap order cuts through panic.**_

"_**Port plasma beam cannon is down, reading irregular surges in starboard cyclotron, ventral rail guns are offline, main engine is off-line."**_

"_**Hyperdrive?"**_

"_**Hyperdrive Window Generators are online."**_

"_**Sir, Saturn Defense line detects an incoming Ha'tak IFF identifies it as FJA Yavin; War Minister Teal'c in command!"**_

"_**Guang Xi is preparing to launch missiles, they're targeting the East Coast!"**_

"_**Set Hyperdrive for a micro-jump. Jump us into position between the Guang Xi and target!" **_

"_**Sir, we'll be deep within Earth's gravity well, we might not survive re-entry at that speed…I see, Yes Sir!"**_

_**His eyes leave no doubt of his intentions.**_

"_**Ops! Open all VLS hatches, deactivate weapon safety protocols authorization Homer-2-1-9-Charlie-6. Preprogram the Guang Xi in as the target. Fire for effect, I want a full saturation strike using all our remaining weapons. It wouldn't do for us do go down with all our ordinance still on board now would it?" **_

_**Stop them at all costs, three hundred lives weighed against millions.**_

"_**Sir , Yes Sir!'**_

"_**Engaging Hyperdrive on your mark!"**_

"_**Mark!"**_

_**Through it all his eyes were on the burning wreck of the Odyssey. **_

The ship hadn't gone down after all and they called him a hero, yet, in his mind.

The fire still burned…

A polite clearing of a throat caught his attention. To his left stood the General Commander of Ad Hoc Fleet One, General Le Croix, looking at him intently, reflexively, Colonel O'Neill came to attention and saluted. His posture easing after the general returned the gesture bade the colonel to follow out the door.

The two men walk for a time in silence through the well lit walkways of the station. They crossed onto one of the moving conveyors located within the Bowels of the military base excavated out of Helene. The nickel and iron mined from the asteroid 16 kilometers in diameter had been used to construct the fragile-looking external docking moors and cages used by workers to perform light repairs and apply finishing touches to ships. Refueling them and loading ordinance without the risk of an internal explosion.

Twenty recessed hangers had been excavated out of one side of the irregular spheroid. Each one capable of allowing worker to construct or perform heavy repairs to two Daedalus-class Battle cruisers at a time. Another, larger hanger bay was capable of holding anything up to and including the kilometer- long McKinnon Super Carrier.

Since the complex honeycombed the massive spheroid, linking hanger bays to storage rooms, fuel dumps, fusion power plants and habitation zones, rail cars, elevators and conveyor belt-ways were a necessary fixture for those moving between distant locations like the General and Colonel.

Breaking the silence the General remarked, "Your file makes for a very interesting read Colonel."

Having nothing to say and composed enough to know that an answer wasn't expected the Colonel maintained a respectful silence.

"Fifty-five years experience working for special operations, a college education, a doctorate in Astrophysics, Astronomy and Strategic Planning, I can see why you came highly recommended." Le Croix remarked looking at O'Neill.

The Colonel resisted shifting uncomfortably under the general's scrutiny. Blandly he answered. "Technically Sir, I only actually spent twenty years working in special operations."

The General was unperturbed, "I said experience, and that you certainly have, it's why I asked for you."

O'Neill lifted an eyebrow. "Sir?"

The General looked to one side where a forty meter long display showed a real time image of space outside.

"Six planets, Earth, Tagrea, Galara, Pangara, Hebridan, Orbania" The General said. "Thirteen colonies of various sizes, Twenty-three Protectorates, Five provisional members, not counting Atlantis." He sighed as he continued. "The Goa'uld remnants, rogue Jaffa warlords, the Lucien Alliance, the Vanir, the Wraith, and a couple of other hostile races that we've only seen indirect signs of."

Looking at the Colonel Le Croix added. "To protect those assets and allies we have 261 Battle cruisers divided among twelve fleets and one Ad Hoc fleet. That's five hundred Heavy cruisers, eight carriers, nine hundred destroyers, nearly a thousand frigates and tens of thousands of fighters, support craft and transports."

Turning away from the Colonel and stepping onto a deceleration track, he was followed followed by O'Neill, the General then spoke the harsh truth. 'It's still not enough."

"Our combined arms initiative on Earth was simple in concept but terribly difficult to implement. In fact, we still hadn't completely worked everything out when the Federation opened up admittance to the senior members." Giving a forlorn sigh the French national gave his frank opinion on the state of things. "The logistics is all buggered up, it's hard enough keeping up the pace of construction, now we're running up against a wall as far as experienced crews are concerned. Of our allies only Hebridan and Galara can provide the fleet with able bodies in anything even remotely resembling a realistic timeframe."

"Cross training takes time sir," O'Neill observed. "Less time for terrestrial forces than space fleet operations but even then it takes time, we'll have to invest in the education provided by the Tagrean and Pangaran academies. The Orbanians are helping us with that."

"And in the meanwhile all we can do is chase off probing raids on the Federation back into Lawless Space." The General finished with a snarl, and O'Neil frowned not happy with that thought either.

"Am I to assume sir that this has something to do with my new posting?" O'Neill asked as they crossed into a maglev car that sped along a shaft leading to another section of the station.

The General remained silent as the train car sped through the airless void before decelerating. Instead of opening the doors for its passengers to step out, the train began to move upwards like an elevator for a few minutes before stopping. The doors opened into an empty observation deck made out of a transparent material, overlooking a vast, dimly lit void. The darkness was oppressive and O'Neill cautiously followed General Le Croix into the unnerving room.

Striding confidently into the shadows the General spoke to the following colonel. "The best defense is a good offense. The First to the Sixth Fleets are busy defending the Senior Member worlds while the Eight, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Fleets are busy defending our colonies and Provisional members. Seventh and Twelfth Fleets are fighting the Wraith, scouring Pegasus for Ancient technology and ferrying supplies to and from Atlantis"

Coming to a stop at a mirror-like wall the general turned and faced the colonel. "That just leaves Ad Hoc Fleet One to watch over our scattered Protectorates and off-world allies... Lights!"

O'Neill's eyes widened as he stared past General Le Croix's shoulder at what his superior officer knew was already there, the man continued speaking unperturbed. "This is why JFSOCOM had you and your entire regiment transferred over to my command. Ad Hoc Fleet One in addition to its duties as a space based support for our allies and Stargate Operations will also provide cover for Military Intelligence and Task Force Hunter."

Smiling crookedly at O'Neill's gob smacked expression Le Croix continued. "Our assignment is to be Commander of the Flagship of TaskForce Hunter, officially named Ad Hoc One Subdivision Fox Four."

Hovering alone within the cavernous hanger was what looked at first like a standard Odyssey refit Daedelus battle cruiser, only this one was painted in a matte black coating that seemed to drink up the light in its midnight darkness. There were no windows visible, even the command dome seemed to be covered over in thick armor. There were a few extra weapons that reminded him of blocky Tollan Ion Cannons and several dark black bumps, almost unnoticeable, that studded the vessel's surface. Add the extra antennas that jutted out from the bow and laterally from the sides of the hangers pest description that Jack could give to the ship that he was looking at was Predator.

"Normally it looks indistinguishable from an ordinary Batch II Daedelus but we switched off the holographic projectors off to show you her true face." Le Croix explained. "It's the carbon/neutronium/naquada alloy the Asgard were using in their hull designs only since we've only got a limited supply from Pegasus our scientists added a little human ingenuity."

Gesturing to the ship the General continued. "It's a micrometer thick layer of nano-platelets bound together by a weave of trinium coated bucky-tubes, the same stuff we use in the GravLevs. The Naquada alloy absorbs incoming energy and uses a fraction of it to increase the structural integrity of the platelet, the excess energy is distributed by the weave across the hull, similarly strengthening the armor. What ever excess energy is left over from that is used by construction nanobots to restore damage to the hull at a rate proportional to the energy expended in destroying it." Le Croix grinned, it looked painful. "You wouldn't even dent an antenna if it were hit by a MAC triple burst."

The General's turned predatory. "Anubis refit Ha'tak won't even leave a scratch." His grin turned somber though, "Dematerialization beams and anti-matter weaponry are this system's bane though. The neutronium is far too complex in structure to be materialized using beaming technology so you are limited to what's in the material stores and what the nanobots can salvage from the hull. So what do you think?"

Seeing that he was still being completely ignored by the Colonel, General Le Croix huffed and dryly added. "The engineers call her the Big O."

Before O'Neill's eyes a section of the hull changed, photocells coated onto the surface of of clusters of the nano-platelets activated, revealing letter by letter the name of Colonel O'Neill's one true love.

_**Orion, the Hunter**_

xx

A Further Note on TFSF Fleet numbers and Disposition at the time in this story.

261 Daedelus-class Battle cruisers

6 Planets in full membership of the Terran Federation

13 Fleets

6 Systen Defense Fleets protecting assets within each Senior Member world's home system

4 Roving Fleets assigned to protect and explore the systems within and surrounding each Member World's claimed territory in addition to defending colonies and providing aid to Provisional Members.

2 Fleets with Assigned Carriers to protect Interests within Pegasus Galaxy.

Ad Hoc Fleet assigned Patrol duties of Protectorates and less advanced allies from raiders. It is composed of 20-35 Battle cruisers depending on fleet assignments, training classes and the alert level of the fleet.

15-20 Battle cruisers per fleet

38 Heavy cruisers

1 Carrier per System Defense Fleet

68 Destroyers divided per fleet into five flotillas

76 Frigates divided per fleet into five flotillas

258 Multi-role Transports

236 Orca Orbital Lift Vehicles less in a roving fleet

608 fighters per fleet less carrier squadrons in a Roving fleet

1 Mobile Terrestrial Tactical Base per Carrier

Commonly divided into five sub-formations, four Wolf formation and one Bear formation

Tactics:

Fleets are geared toward fighting raiders and the Wraith. Wolf formations race after raiding bands cutting off escape and launching massed, fire for effect, strikes or quick, in and out slashing attacks upon single targets depending on the strength of the enemy. Bear formations are based around Carrier with eight destroyers assigned to defend the carrier from enemy cruisers and fighter craft by launching mid-ranged attacks with mass-drivers utilizing a variety of projectile types and long to close-ranged missiles.

A destroyer is a swift and highly maneuverable spacecraft with weaker shields than a heavy cruiser and less powerful weaponry than a battle cruiser. However these vessels make use of massed strikes of high-yield nuclear weapons either followed of preceded by shots from a rapid fire MAC capable of unleashing triple bursts of ceramic-tungsten-carbon rounds designed to act as either a 900 metric ton kinetic strike weapons, high-speed fragmentation rounds or as a shell for an enhance nuclear mine.

Carrier tactics involves either extending fighter cover over defended area supported by one frigate per squadron or directly engaging enemy fighters that survive destroyer anti-fighter flack. With the ranged support of Frigates fighters may be ordered to engage at range or otherwise strike at targets of opportunity such as orbital facilities, damaged warships or terrestrial targets.

Carriers also carry MTTB's a heavily shielded all-terrain, orbital entry vehicle docked within the kilometer long Carrier's most heavily protected central hold. The 300 meter long MTTB provides a secure area within hostile territory to beam in troops by the battalion. It was a 5,000 individual capacity with space for light vehicles, aircraft, armor units, gun ships and naval units from any service in the terrestrial military.

Only a brigadier general in command of fleet security and terrestrial operations, his or her staff and two battalions are actually on board a Carrier the other three brigade's worth of platoons and companies spread throughout the fleet, serving as security against boarders when not on the ground. The Brigadier General or depending on the situation a Naval Rear Admiral commands the security forces on board and while on board follows the commands of the General of the Space Forces which cannot be countermanded by any other vessel commander.

As such in the performance of his duties aboard the carrier in the absence of any orders from the General of the Space Force Fleet (GSFF) the Brigadier is required to accede to any lawful order from of the commander of the vessel he or she aboard unless the Order is proven to be unlawful or assessed by the Brigadier in his expert judgment to pose a reckless and unreasonable risk to the operational security and viability of his command. In both cases such a decision must be reviewed in a timely fashion by a representative from the office of the Judge Advocate General.

The platoon and company commanders aboard Space Forces vessels must likewise accede to any lawful orders in the absence of any countermanding orders from the Brigadier General or next surviving superior within the chain of command or face similar consequences. Orders from the GSFF that affect general troop deployment within the fleet or upon the surface must be passed to personnel through the recognized commander of the Security Forces. Likewise while the brigadier general/rear admiral is the highest ranking officer on the ground, any requests for space based artillery support or reinforcements from aircraft not under his or her direct command must be routed through the Fleet chain of command unless there is a request for an emergency beam out.

Frigates are under the command of a Major or space force Captain. They are a combined Galaran/Tauri design intended for search and rescue operations, supplemental artillery support for fighters and ground forces as well as Al'kesk killers, the last being it's original intended role in the fleet. Frigates can be cloaked and possess at least four Mark III warhead enhanced nuclear missiles in addition to a highly effective anti-fighter load-out. While not strongly shielded, under the cover of a carrier, with the mutual support of a fighter squadron or another frigate these warships can easily depopulate local space of udajeet fighters.

Fighters

The X-302 multi-role fighter was fazed out of usage by 2040 with the in introduction of the multi-planetary designed GTH-12 'Wagtail' atmospheric/extra-atmospheric fighter-interceptor and the Tau'ri Nigel & Lune Dragonfly Artillery Gunship. The first of these vessels is not only faster and more agile than an X-302, but more heavily shielded armed and better armored. The GTH-12 is composed from an extremely durable composite of molecularly fused, B-steel and trinium alloy that was light-weight, heat resistant and extremely stiff.

Powered by five naquada micro-fusion reactors with a fifty- year operational lifetime the GTH-12 strongly resembled a Tau'ri designed Grumman X-29 though nearly double the length at 25 meters. With two Hebridan multiple vector compressed plasma thrusters and a single Ion engine. An antigravity pod below the hyperspace window generator to deduce the fighter's apparent weight within a gravity well and two retractable gravimetric pods to aid in maneuverability and high velocity acrobatics both within space and in a planet's atmosphere.

The shorter, stubbier wings were augmented by a shield that hugged closely to the air-frame and could be deployed in a virtual wing configuration in atmosphere for increased performance. Weapons include two Hebridan designs, a pair of angle medium pulse lasers with wide firing angles, and two forward facing rapid fire helium based plasma cannons all of which was mounted on the fuselage.

The vessel holds 32 half meter long Tau'ri micro-fusion smart missiles equipped with a manetoplasmadynamic (MPD) motor and micro thrusters for tracking targets at long range. The missiles are fired from launchers below the gravimetric pods that retract from either side of the vertical stamaliser.

Each of the naquada enhanced fusion war head generates a 1 kiloton explosion from a pure fusion reaction. It creates a powerful electro-magnetic pulse, with little to no ionizing radiation, 85-92.2 percent conversion into thermal energy, incinerating unshielded objects within a kilometer of the blast leaving behind no unconsumed radioactive material. Fighters can also one Mark III nuclear missile carried under the fuselage.

Due to the GTH-12's ability to move and maneuver as velocities disorienting to a pilot even with inertial dampeners, twice the maximum velocity of an X-302, fighter pilots utilize a Galaran designed, non-invasive neural interface. This device ties into the navigation and targeting systems, scanning the pilot's brain to determine his or her intentions and in order to optimize systems in anticipation of a pilot's actions.

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**AN: I'll be busy for a while… review, review, I need a beta-reader.**

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